Operatic alum returns to Middlebury

In his first performance at Middlebury since graduation, opera tenor William Burden ’86 will be giving a recital to benefit the Opera Company of Middlebury March 13 at the Town Hall Theater. Emory Fanning, a former music teacher at the College under whom Burden studied, will accompany him.

Burden has sung with such diverse companies as the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera and various venues throughout Europe. However, in true liberal arts fashion, his path to opera stardom was by no means a straight one.

He was almost — but not quite — a Spanish-Music double major while at Middlebury, settling instead for the language alone. He sang in the chapel choir and the Dissipated Eight, and studied voice under Lise Missier and Nan Nall, but for the most part left ideas of singing professionally well enough alone.

“They [the music faculty] brought in a guy from the Westminster Choir, from Princeton, Glenn Parker,” Burden said. “He did a sort of opera workshop for anyone who was interested at the time, and he was the one who really pulled me aside and got me seriously thinking. I didn’t always consider it as a career, but I figured if I didn’t give it a shot I’d regret not knowing if I could have done it.”

According to Burden, the defining moment was signing up for graduate school, an implicit indication that he was in it for the long haul, not to mention a radical switch from the liberal arts tradition to a professional program. Teachers, apprenticeships, smaller roles, bigger roles and 20 years later, he’s still at it.

Within the music world, where many choose to enter pre-professional programs early on, Burden may be considered a late bloomer. He believes the delay gives him additional insight into his craft.

“My time at Middlebury was ideal in not choosing to focus on one thing exclusively at 18,” he said. “I definitely think it’s incumbent on the next generation of artists to have as varied a background as they can. Whenever I have the opportunity to work with young singers I encourage them to read, study languages, and get involved in the literature of the country from which the piece they’re doing originated. It’s not even just background for a role, but to get a sense of what was happening. Knowing what was historically happening in the eighteenth century gives you a much better sense of Mozart’s operas. Studying singing is terribly important, but it’s not the only important thing.”

Currently a freelance musician, Burden signs on for individual roles with various companies. His most recent project is the world premier of Amelia, a work commissioned by the Seattle Opera and composed by Daron Hagen. He plays a ghost, the deceased father of the title character, shot down in the Vietnam War.

His program Friday will highlight a little bit of everything, ranging from traditional arias to some songs by Henre Duparc and a selection from a song cycle written by his friend Gene Sheer. The cycle was inspired by the 50th anniversary of D-Day and features five different stories of World War II.